Serial killer who targeted S.A. girl is executed

1of 5This is a SAPD handout photo of Mary Bea Perez, 9. The girl has been missing since 10 p.m. Sunday and was last seen at Market Square. ( 4/19/99) jerry lara/staffPhoto: File photo

2of 5Drifter Tommy Lynn Sells was linked to the deaths of more than a dozen people.Photo: Associated Press

3of 5CORRECTS DATE TO MARCH 19 - This undated photo provided by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice shows Ray Jasper III. Jasper, convicted in the 1998 murder of David Alejandro, is set for lethal injection Wednesday evening, March 19, 2014. (AP Photo/Texas Department of Criminal Justice)Photo: uncredited, AP

4of 5This handout image provided by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice shows convicted killer Tommy Lynn Sells, who had been set to die Thursday, April 3, 2014. A federal judge on Wednesday, April 2, 2014, issued a temporary injunction stopping the lethal injection saying justice department officials must disclose information to the Sells' lawyers about the supplier of a new batch of drugs that would be used to kill him. (AP Photo/Texas Department of Criminal Justice)Photo: Associated Press

5of 5Tommy Lynn Sells, seen here in 2000 being taken to talk to Arkansas officials about slayings there, was executed for the 1999 stabbing death of Kaylene Harris.Photo: CHRIS JOHNSON, AP

HUNTSVILLE — Serial killer Tommy Lynn Sells — a drifter who has been linked to the deaths of more than a dozen people, including a 9-year-old San Antonio girl — declined to give a final statement or make eye contact with his victims' families Thursday as he was executed.

Terry Harris, the father of another child victim, broke the silence, commenting as the drugs took effect that the death was “way more gentle than he gave out.”

“What a great day,” Harris added after Sells was covered with a blanket and the families were escorted out of the viewing area.

Texas Department of Criminal Justice officials pronounced Sells dead at 6:27 p.m., 13 minutes after he was injected with a fatal dose of pentobarbital.

More Information

The S.A. victim

Tommy Lynn Sells pleaded guilty to strangling 9-year-old
Mary Beatrice Perez, who was abducted from a Fiesta event in 1999.

A Val Verde County jury sent Sells, 49, to death row in 2000 for the December 1999 stabbing death of 13-year-old Kaylene Harris in her family's trailer home near Del Rio.

He confessed after a friend who was sleeping over that night survived having her own throat slit and helped identify him to authorities.

He later pleaded guilty in Bexar County to strangling 9-year-old Mary Beatrice Perez, who was abducted from a Fiesta event at Market Square in 1999.

The missing child, who loved to dance and preferred to be called Mary Bea, was found dead in a creek bed a week later, clad only in a Mickey Mouse T-shirt and a single white sock.

Bexar County District Attorney Susan Reed agreed to drop her bid for a second death sentence, instead settling on life in prison, in exchange for Sells' plea.

As witnesses watched the execution from an enclosed viewing area feet away from his gurney, Sells smiled faintly at two friends in attendance.

He closed his eyes and gasped as the drug was administered. A chaplain holding a Bible stood near his feet, clutching his right ankle.

“Whatever went through his veins, he went too quick for my satisfaction,” Mary Bea's grandmother, Mary Torres, later said outside the corrections facility, where families of both girls shook hands and embraced.

“I wanted to see him die,” added Shawn Harris, Kaylene's brother. “That's honest. I wanted to know that he could no longer hurt anybody.”

In the three days leading up to his execution, Sells spent much of the time talking to visitors, prison officials said. He packed his personal property early Thursday and was described as reserved. His last breakfast consisted of three pancakes, oatmeal and apple sauce.

The execution came despite last-minute litigation by attorneys for Sells and another death row inmate seeking to have the U.S. Supreme Court intervene because Texas prison officials refused to disclose details about its newest batch of lethal drugs.

The high court sent word that it wouldn't stop the execution about an hour before it was scheduled to begin.

Lawyers for Sells argued, in part, that, “the increasing scarcity of execution drugs — and consequent concerns about the quality and states' desperate efforts to keep the source of drugs secret — have become the central feature of botched executions and Eighth Amendment concerns.”

They wanted to know more about how the drug is manufactured in order to evaluate whether it would result in a cruel and unusual punishment.

“It is our belief that how we choose to execute prisoners reflects on us as a society,” said a statement released by Sells' lawyers, Maurie Levin and Jonathan Ross, moments after the high court's decision was released. “Without transparency about lethal injections, particularly the source and purity of the drugs to be used, it is impossible to ensure that executions are humane and constitutional.”

Texas officials, however, contended that they are not required to disclose details about the drug suppliers or other information because to do so would breach security of the supply chain and could subject suppliers to harassment and threats. They said there's no evidence pointing to the likelihood of severe pain.

When asked about the lawsuit, some of the family members in attendance Thursday said Sells' death was far from cruel compared to how he treated his victims. Others said they simply didn't care whether Sells suffered.

“We all have suffered so many years,” said John Torres, Mary Bea's grandfather. “It's payback time.”

Drew Joseph joined the Express-News in 2013 . Before coming to San Antonio, he covered health for the San Franciso Chronicle, lobbying and campaign finance for National Journal and breaking news for the Oregonian. He is a San Francisco Bay Area native and went to Dartmouth College.